Victims and Survivors of Crime Week
Student Video Competition Award: Video Submission Criteria and Process

Each year, Justice Canada invites students to submit a video entry for the Student Video Competition Award. Students enrolled at a Canadian university, college, or CÉGEP, who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory, can participate by submitting a video for consideration in the Student Video Competition Award.

The Policy Centre for Victim Issues will send out an email announcing the launch of the Call for Video Submissions each year. To receive the E-Blast and to be added to the Victims Week distribution list, please email vwsdv@justice.gc.ca.

Student Video Competition Award

Video Submission Form

Video Theme Guidelines

Victims Week is an annual outreach initiative of the Policy Centre for Victim Issues which aims to: raise awareness about the issues facing victims and survivors of crime and the services, assistance and laws in place to help them and their families; and acknowledge the work of service providers and other criminal justice professionals in assisting victims and survivors of crime and their families.

In light of the annual Victims Week theme – The Power of Collaboration – student videos must answer the following question:

When thinking about victims and survivors of crime, and those that support them, what does the power of collaboration mean to you?

The theme for Victims Week recognizes that:

• Canada has made significant advances within the criminal justice system and victim services field to increase collaboration to ensure the system is responsive to the various needs of victims of crime.
• There is a continued need within the criminal justice system and victim services field for increased cross-sector collaboration, as well as enhanced coordination, partnerships, and multi-disciplinary responses to better support victims.
• More can be accomplished to address gaps in the continuum of services and to break down barriers for better access to the meaningful supports that victims depend on throughout the criminal justice process.

The Student Video Competition Award aims to engage students in a creative thinking exercise about the victims’ movement and the services and assistance available to victims and survivors of crime in Canada. It is our hope that the Student Video Competition Award will result in increased awareness of victims’ issues among Canada’s young adults and future leaders, and that today’s leaders will have the opportunity to learn from their perspectives.

Eligibility Criteria

• The video must address the following question: When thinking about victims and survivors of crime, and those that support them, what does the power of collaboration mean to you?
• The video must be created and submitted by an individual student or group of students enrolled at a Canadian university, college, or CÉGEP, who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory.
• At the beginning, students must state their name, educational institution, and explain that they have created the video for the Victims Week Student Video Competition Award.
• Videos must be no longer than 2 minutes in length.

While it is not mandatory, students are encouraged to demonstrate how any opinions they may express throughout their video are evidence-based (e.g., based on social science, socio-legal, psychological, legal research etc.).

We encourage students to be creative in their entries!

Submission Guidelines

• Students may not receive financial assistance from any person or organization. Students may, however, receive mentorship from faculty members at their educational institution.
• Videos can be submitted in French or English, or both.
• To submit a video entry, students must: (i) publish their video on YouTube, in a format supported by YouTube and in accordance with YouTube’s Terms of Service and (ii) complete the Video Submission Form, before the video submission closing date.
• In the Video Submission Form, students are requested to include the names of their team members (if applicable) and the name of the educational institution that they attend, and to identify one team member as the “Team Captain”.
• Within the Video Submission Form, the Submission Agreement must also be signed and dated. If submitting a video as a team, each member of the team must sign and date the Submission Agreement. The Team Captain should provide an email address and telephone number at which they can be reached.
• Students are invited to post their video on social media using the Victims Week hashtags: #VictimsWeek #SemaineDesVictimes
• After the video submission deadline, all video entries will be added to a YouTube playlist (“the playlist”). The link to the playlist will be shared with the Victims Week National Organizing Committee and Justice Canada officials who are involved with organizing the Student Video Competition Award.
• Within the Video Submission Form, students are requested to submit a written transcript of the video to assist with the interpretation and closed captioning of the winning video.
• It is the responsibility of participating students to notify Justice Canada if at any point they wish to withdraw from the Student Video Competition Award. It is also the responsibility of students to remove their videos from YouTube if at any point in time they wish to do so.
• Videos that fail to conform to the parameters set out in this document will be disqualified from the Student Video Competition Award.
• Videos that contain explicitly violent content, and/or that are deemed hateful, harassing, libelous, defamatory, pornographic or obscene will be disqualified from the Student Video Competition Award.

Selection

• The video submissions will be reviewed by members of the Victims Week National Organizing Committee, which is mainly comprised of victim service providers and victim advocates from across Canada, as well as federal public servants. Links to the videos will be shared with the Victims Week National Organizing Committee for their review and the video with the most votes will be selected as the winner.
• Winners will be selected on the basis of the following criteria:
  • Relevance to the Victims Week theme
  • Creativity in concept and writing
  • Clarity of communication
  • Execution
  • Quality and thoroughness of reflection/analysis
  • Demonstration that any opinions shared are based in evidence.

Award

The winner will be notified via email or telephone by May.

• The winning video, as selected by the Victims Week National Organizing Committee, will be streamed at the Victims Week virtual opening event and the link will be shared with the public.
• The winner of the Victims Week Student Video Competition Award will be announced during the Victims Week virtual opening event.
• The winner will be given the opportunity to participate on the Victims Week National Organizing Committee for one year, and to provide their perspective with the committee and assist with organizing the next Victims Week initiative.

Privacy Notice

• Justice Canada is committed to respecting the privacy of participants. All personal information obtained for the purposes of this Student Video Competition Award is collected by Justice Canada in conformity with the Privacy Act.
• Participating in the Student Video Competition Award requires that you provide the Policy Centre for Victim Issues at Justice Canada and the Victims Week National Organizing Committee with personal information, including but not limited to your name, contact information, the name of the educational institution at which you are enrolled. Participation also requires that you publish a video of yourself or of other individuals (with their permission). Personal information is collected pursuant to the general framework of the Department’s mandate for the purposes of this outreach activity.
• The use and disclosure of personal information by Justice Canada is done in accordance with the federal Privacy Act. Such information will be used and disclosed for the following purposes:
  1. To attribute the video submissions to their creators in the course of selecting and voting for the Student Video Competition Award winner
  2. To communicate with Student Video Competition Award participants, including to inform the winner that they have been selected as such
  3. To stream or share the link to the video with the public during Victims Week
  4. To attribute the winning video submission to its creator when it is announced during Victims Week
  5. To disclose the link to the video submissions to the Victims Week National Organizing Committee members and Justice Canada employees directly involved in the Victims Week initiative
• Video entries will be published on YouTube and will be subject to YouTube’s Terms of Service, available at https://www.youtube.com/t/terms.
• The Privacy Act gives you the right to access your personal information and request corrections where you believe there is an error or omissions. For further information, please refer to the Standard Personal Information Banks (PSU 938), available at https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/access-information-privacy/access-information/info-source/standard-personal-information-banks.html#psu938.
• If you are not satisfied with Justice Canada’s response to your privacy concern, you may wish to contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada by telephone at 1-800-282-1376. You also have the right to file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner about the handling of your personal information.

Copyright and Permissions

• Entries must constitute original works.
• If any individuals appear in your video, they must have consented to being recorded, and to have their image, voice and likeness used by Justice Canada for the purposes described herein. If any individual appearing in the video is under the age of majority, his or her parent or guardian must provide such consent. You must keep evidence of same.
• By submitting your entry, you grant Justice Canada the right to use, reproduce, stream, broadcast, edit, translate, adapt, or otherwise disseminate your video and script (the Work), without any further approval from you in whole or in part, throughout the world, in perpetuity, in any and all media now known or hereafter developed, including the Internet for purposes related to the Victims Week initiative and related departmental non-commercial uses. This grant includes, but is not limited to, the right to use the Work either alone or together with such information as your name, the name of your collaborators, your image, likeness, voice and biographical data (collectively, “Supporting Information”). Examples of permitted uses of the Work and Supporting Information include adding the video to a YouTube playlist, displaying or streaming the video at the virtual Victims Week event, or any event thereafter, or submitting the video or a YouTube link to the video to the Victims Week National Organizing Committee and Justice Canada employees for the purposes of voting in the Student Video Competition Award.

Other Information

• Students with questions about the Student Video Competition Award Guidelines, Privacy Notice or Submission Agreement can contact the Policy Centre for Victim Issues at vwsdv@justice.gc.ca.
• Students with questions about accessibility or who require other accessible formats of the Student Video Competition Award Guidelines can contact the Policy Centre for Victim Issues at vwsdv@justice.gc.ca.
• The organizers of the Student Video Competition Award reserve the right to waive one or more of the Student Video Competition Award’s parameters to accommodate a participant with a disability.